Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
My paper makes a case for an ecological and democratic global political order based on and inspired by the relevant resources in the tradition of Confucian political thought. I will do so by putting into conversation two most prominent contemporary proponents of Confucian cosmopolitan thinking, Zhao Tingyang of People’s Republic of China and Na Jongseok of South Korea. My thesis is that the concepts of tianxia (天下) and daedong (datong 大同), when reimagined through the lens of an ecologically grounded cosmopolitan democratic thinking, could offer a way to liberate the global commons from its enslavement to the reign of extractive neo-liberal global capitalism and the hegemonic/imperial nation-states.